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Part 4

 “So, how does it feel to be a mother?”  Willow asked Cordelia, who was busy
nursing her son, Arman.  The red head was holding his twin sister, Georgie.
Faith was there also, cooing over both babies, as was Anya, who had been
brought up to Olympus so that she could see the babies and give Cordelia
some of the gifts that had brought to her by those that had decided to
worship the Goddess.
 “Strange,” came the truthful reply.  “And I’ve never been happier.  Or more
scared.  I mean, it was bad enough knowing that these two little lives were
going to be depending on me and Wes to protect them.  But now, to have a
bunch of strangers looking to them as if they were some sort of second
chance.  I don’t know what to do.  What if I do something wrong?”
 “You’ll be fine, Cordy,” Faith assured the brunette girl that was still in
bed.  Not because she wasn’t feeling well enough to actually move, but
because both her husband and mother were refusing to allow her to move until
she completely got her strength restored.  “In fact, I have no doubt that
you’ll be up and about ordering everyone around in no time flat.”
 “Yeah that sounds like our Queen C,”  Willow added.  “Besides, you’ve got a
lot of people to thank for their gifts.”  Cordelia looked over at the pile
of gifts that Anya had brought with her.
 “I can’t believe they’re all for me,” Cordelia groaned.  “Who would have
thought that that many people would actually want to give me that stuff.
And some of it is majorly expensive.”
 “Which is why I knew you would want them,” Anya teased.  Cordelia smiled at
her high priestess.
 “Please let everyone know how much I appreciate their gifts and tell them
that I will be down there as soon as I’m allowed out of bed to thank them
myself,” Cordelia not quite ordered the former demon.
 “I will,” Anya promised.  “I have a feeling that mall will never be the
same.” All the women laughed at this, acknowledging the accuracy of Anya’s
statement.
 “Is this a private party or can anyone join in,” came a voice from the
doorway.  They all turned to look at the new arrival, smiling when they saw
who it was.
 “You’re always welcome, you should know that by now,” Cordelia told the
woman, who entered carrying a small wrapped gift.  “After all, you are their
aunt Xena.”
 The former warrior princess smiled at her niece.  She took Arman from his
mother who had finished feeding him, smiling down at the new God.  “He has
your eyes,” she told Cordelia.  “But I can definitely see some Wesley in
him.”
 “I think so.  But Georgie is all her mother,” Cordelia said proudly.  She
watched the way Xena looked at her child, knowing that she was happy because
this was one child that she wouldn’t have to raise.  Cordelia had heard that
Xena had raised quite a few of the children that the Gods since the demi-god
had decided to live her life as a mortal, although she wouldn’t ever age or
die.
 “So Xena, what brings you up here,” Willow asked.  She and the Warrior
Princess had long ago made up for any hard feelings that might have resided
between them for what had happened so many centuries ago.  Willow had been
surprised to find out that Xena had accepted that the Gods were actually
still around, even if her two companions Hercules and Gabrielle hadn’t.
 “I have some news and I don’t think you’ll be all that happy to hear about
it.”  At the expectant look on the faces of her new found friends, Xena
continued.  “I got word that Hercules and Gabrielle have finally heard about
the return of the Gods.  Not only that, but about what has been done to you,
and Iolaus.  They aren’t happy.  They’re heading to Sunnydale and I have a
feeling they may team up with Forrest and Buffy.”
 “Damn,” Faith groaned.  “You would figure that two thousand years would be
long enough for the two of them to get over whatever grudge their holding
against the Gods.”
 “I thought they had,” Xena replied.  “But maybe they didn’t bitch about the
Gods as much because they weren’t there anymore.  Causing us any more
problems.  I know that was one of the reasons I had finally gotten over what
had happened.  Had finally accepted that Ares truly loved Joxer, and that
Iolaus had been  happy too, even if he didn’t have Faith anymore.
Unfortunately, now that the Gods are making their presence known, including
those that were thought dead, their feelings are resurfacing.  And I don’t
think they’ll ever get over it.”

Greece, About 100 B.C (hey, I have no idea of a time line, so go with it.
I’m gonna say about 300 or 400 years after the twilight of the Gods.)

 “I wish people would be more willing to accept the Way,” Gabrielle stated,
causing one of her companions to nod his head and the other to shake hers.
“The world would be such a better place if they realized that fighting does
no good.”
 “Sometimes people only care about what is right in front of them,” Hercules
added, continuing the same discussion that he and the former bard always
had.  And Xena was so tired of it.  It made her wish for the Gods to be
around so that they could provide her with a distraction.  While she loved
her two companions, there were times when she wished that either she or they
weren’t immortal.  Sometimes she thought that it was her father’s last act
of revenge against her in his making Gabrielle immortal.  He must have known
how annoying the bard could be and wanted Xena to suffer.  And suffer she
had.
“I’m just glad that the Gods aren’t here anymore,” Gabrielle put in.  “I
mean, if mortals are this bad on their own now, can you imagine what would
happen if Ares was here to manipulate them?”
 “I don’t think I want to imagine that,” Hercules stated.  “He was nothing
more than a murderous bastard.  Even if mortals aren’t willing to see the
Way yet, it would be even worse if he was alive.”
 “How do you figure that?”  Xena asked, already knowing the answer.
Gabrielle and Hercules still hated the Gods, even after all this time,
although they don’t curse them nearly as much as they had for the first
hundred years or so.  Well, except when they got talking about the Way.
 “Come on, Xena,”  Gabrielle said patiently.  “You remember how Ares was.
How he loved to play mind games with people.  He would love to take
advantage of how violent some people are.  He thrived on it.”
 “Of course he did,” Xena agreed.  “He was the God of War.  People’s violent
tendencies are what gave him power, but he was also responsible for
controlling those tendencies so that they didn’t get out of hand. “
 “You can’t be serious,” Hercules asked incredulously.  “This is Ares we’re
talking about.  Loved to torment us and making our lives a living Tartarus.”
  Xena rolled her eyes at her half brother.
 “Yeah, like we never did anything to deserve that,” she pointed out.  “We
loved to interrupt whatever little plan he might have, whether we felt we
had a right to or not.  Not to mention that he constantly had to live in the
shadow of his little brother who Zeus had made no secret of favoring.  I
would be a little pissed too.”
 “You aren’t actually excusing the way Ares was?”  Gabrielle demanded.
 “I’m not excusing anything,” Xena replied.  “I’m just saying that I
understand why he was that way.”  And Xena was telling the truth.  She had
come to terms with her eldest brother, having finally accepted that the Gods
did have a purpose, even if it seemed to be playing with the lives of
mortals.  Gabrielle and Hercules were no better, constantly preaching peace
and love instead of war to people, even if those that were there didn’t want
to hear it.  Xena had made it a point of studying human nature and realized
that the Gods didn’t make people the way they were, they just took advantage
of their strengths and weaknesses.  Just like everyone else.
 “There is no understanding war,” Hercules spit out.  “And Ares was war.”
 “Then how do you explain that people still fight wars, if Ares was war,”
Xena questioned.
 “People still refuse to completely accept that the Gods are gone,” Hercules
answered as if it were obvious.  “How many times have we seen a temple that
still appeared to be used.  Or found someone that had claimed that Hera had
come when she was called to help with a difficult birth.  Even though we
killed them, people still want to believe in them.  So, whether he planned
them or not, Ares is still responsible for War.”
 Xena shook her head sadly.  She knew that her friends would never be able
to let go of the hate they felt towards the Gods and she felt sorry for
them.  It didn’t make sense to her to blame beings that were no longer
around for the troubles that the world was in.  And, as she discovered, not
everything that the Gods had done had been evil.  That they had helped
people, and that included Ares.
 “Well, that just means that we will have to make them realize that the Way
is what they need to believe in,” Gabrielle observed.  “The Way of Peace.”
And Xena sighed as Hercules and Gabrielle once again started the discussion
about the Way, continuing it even after they had decided to make camp for
the evening.  Xena volunteered to hunt for dinner, needing to get away from
her friends to think.  She loved Gabrielle and Hercules, she really did, but
she didn’t know if she could take anymore of their sanctimonious rhetoric.
Not to mention their hypocrisy.  Sure, they constantly preached peace and
love, but they were both willing to fight if necessary.  Or not.
 When she went back to the campsite, two rabbits in her hand, they were
still talking about the Way and how they would make the town that they had
just left realize that it was the only thing to believe in and Xena knew
what she had to do.  She hated the fact that it had come down to this, but
she knew it was the only thing that she could do.  So, that night, after
making sure that Hercules and Gabrielle were asleep, Xena quietly packed up
her belongings and crept away from the campsite.  And, as she was leaving,
she put out a prayer that her friends would one day understand why she had
to leave.

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